


Waiting

by satellitescales



Category: Red Rising Series - Pierce Brown
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bonding, Gen, Implied Romance?, M/M, takes place at the beginning of morning star
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28101930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satellitescales/pseuds/satellitescales
Summary: Deanna and Sevro wait for Darrow to wake up by trying to get to know one another. Good thing they've already got one thing in common: their connection with the Reaper.
Relationships: Darrow au Andromedus & Sevro au Barca
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Waiting

Each time he gets back and each time he leaves not long after, Sevro makes a point of walking past that room.

_ The  _ room. The only one that really matters right now. It’s sparse and really kind of depressing if you pay too much attention to the sagging ceiling and paint flaking off the walls. Inside is always two people. Sometimes more, never less.

Those two people are the most important person in the Solar System (even if Sevro’s the only person who truly knows it) and his mom. She sits in a chair often shoved in the corner of the room. He is in a coma.

Sevro stops by this room whenever he can to check in. To make sure he’s still there, that he still  _ exists _ . Sevro’s closest friend looks so small and frail lying on that rickety old cot with wires and tubes snaking in and out of him. It makes Sevro’s skin crawl. It makes him want to cry, scream, throw stuff, kick holes in walls. More than anything it makes him want to peel the Jackal apart.

One time he stops by and Deanna is sitting on the edge of the cot. Sevro subdues the surge of worry at seeing her so close— _ what if she hurts him by accident? _ Deanna is singing. It’s a soft, stony melody. Something distinctly Red—about melancholy and family and the afterlife, pretty standard stuff. Sevro’s always wondered about Deanna. That’s one of the things he and Darrow have in common—Red moms. Sevro never knew his.

“You are here again.” When did she finish singing? More importantly, how long has Sevro been slouching in the doorway?

“So’re you.”

She turns, giving a glare that could cut glass. “I am his mother.”

“And I’m his—“ His what? Suddenly “best friend” seems really lame. What are they? Comrades? Partners? Two misfits stuck in a war bigger than both of them? “Whatever.”

“He told me about you.”

That night in Lykos, with Mustang and Ragnar. Part of him wants badly to know how much Darrow told her, but he’s not all that intent on reliving that day. Or the day after.

Especially the day after.

Deanna accepts his silence. She says, “You two are close.”

Sevro snorts. He gets that glare again and shuts up.

“I thought you would be more frightening. But now I see that you are just a very passionate, reckless person.” She glances back down at his still face. He looks peaceful. Doesn’t suit him. “You love him.”

Love is a strong word. Sevro doesn’t deny it.

He just stands there and stares back at her through Darrow’s old eyes, pulse slugging against skin scarred and torn to protect Darrow, hands that have held him, lips that have said his name, ears that have heard his voice. 

In that moment it all seems so fleeting because he is  _ right there _ . He’s right there, in the room with them, after all this time, and he’s barely hanging on to life. When will he  _ wake up? _

Please, please let him wake up.

Deanna is watching Sevro. Watching him watch Darrow. Suddenly she leans back and draws her hands into her lap.

“Tell me about him.”

“Uh—“

“He told me the short, palatable version of this whole mess.” She tilts her head. “I want to hear your side.”

Sevro doesn’t have the time for this, but he  _ wants to.  _ So he steps in the room, takes up a bow-legged metal chair, and starts to talk.

It isn’t a pretty story, or one that even makes a whole lot of sense. It’s wrought with tragedy and loss and an unusual amount of severed human eyes—but it’s his story, and it’s Darrow’s story. It matters to Sevro more than anything, and from the look on Deanna’s face—the way the light starts to fill her eyes and she sits up a bit straighter, it matters to her as well.

**Author's Note:**

> morning star made me feel some THINGS  
> deanna of lykos ilyyyyy


End file.
